The Resonanz Children’s Choir, Indonesia
and Der Mädchenchor der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, Germany
conducted by Devi Fransisca
Valencia, accompanist
The other choir leaders : Luciana Oendoen and Fiona Luisa
A collaborative concert with Der Mädchenchor der Sing-Akademie zu Berlin
Trinitatis Kirche, Berlin
2nd July 2016
Dirait-on
Words by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Composed by Morten Lauridsen (1943-)
This beautiful poetry is taken from a collection of poems about roses, titled Les Roses. The poem was composed by the late-nineteenth, early-twentieth-century German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke wrote around 400 poems in the French which several of them was about roses. Lauridsen said, “His poems on roses struck me as (they are) especially charming, filled with gorgeous lyricism, deftly crafted and elegant in their imagery”.
In this song, Lauridsen uses imitative counterpoint and overlaps layers of repeated melodic passages between chorus and piano accompaniment and he was successful to capture the delicate beauty in the whole song. He sets the element of Renaissance imitation and counterpoint and combines them with twenty-first-century harmony. Lauridsen’s advanced sensitivity to text inspires him to compose melodic settings that capture the natural rhythm of the spoken text. The accompaniment also shows off his intuitive sense of melodicism and lyrical phrasing.
Abandon entouré d’abandon,
tendresse touchant aux tendresses…
C’est ton intérieur qui sans cesse
se caresse, dirait-on;
se caresse en soi-même,
par son propre reflet éclairé.
Ainsi tu inventes le thème
du Narcisse exaucé.
Abandon surrounding abandon,
Tenderness touching
tenderness…
Your oneness endlessly
Caresses itself, so they say;
Self-caressing,
Through its own clear reflection.
Thus you invent the theme
of Narcissus fulfilled.
